Long Living Tsukubans 8 December, 2006

In Japan, there is a special celebration for people who turn 88 years old. It is called “beiju” （米寿） and it is made up of the characters for “rice” (米) and “long life” (寿). The word is said to come from the fact that the character for rice can be broken down into three parts that spell out 88: 八十八 (eight, ten, eight).

In Tsukuba 361 people turned 88 this year (121 men and 240 women). Also, 14 people turned 100 (1 man, 13 women). There are 15 people who are over 100 years old living in Tsukuba (2 men, 13 women).